“The language is created by the culture,” concluded linguist Daniel Everette in his observations of the Pirahã people, native to the Amazon. Mystifying linguists worldwide, the Pirahã have no descriptive words, stories or subordinate clauses. If the Pirahã’s culture is the physical manifestation of their language, what can the use of language in contemporary discourse teach us about cultures around the world? This edition’s writers touch on this question through various lenses.

Dec 23, 2018

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” 

— Joseph Joubert

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